Award-winning American Muslim scholar on Allah ruling: “We are laughing at you”

BY ELIZABETH ZACHARIAH
October 22, 2013

Reza Aslan says Christians using the word Allah do not pose a threat to Islam. - Pic courtesy Wikimedia Commons / Roanoke College, October 22, 2013.

A well-known American Muslim theologian has joined a long list of critics over the recent Court of Appeal ruling on the use of the word Allah, saying it was a "political decision more than anything else".

"This notion that Malaysian Muslims need to be protected by the court because you can't think for yourself, you can't make decisions on your own. We are laughing at you," said Reza Aslan, speaking on BFM Radio's Evening Edition programme yesterday.

"That you can control people's ideas, their behaviour, their faith and their minds simply by trying to control the words that they use, is absurd. It is an embarassment to a modern, constitutional, democratic and deeply Muslim state like Malaysia," he added.

Aslan insisted that Christians using the word Allah - which means God in Arabic - were not a threat to Islam. 

"A Taliban put a bomb in the Quran and took it to a mosque in Pakistan, where Muslims were slaughtered on one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar. You want to talk about threats to Islam? That's a threat to Islam," he said, in dismissing the argument that allowing Christians to use the word in their worship was a threat to Malaysian Muslims.

He was referring to an incident during the Aidiladha holidays, in which Afghan governor Arsala Jamal was killed while scores were injured after a bomb placed in a copy of the Quran went off in a mosque during the Eid sermon.

Aslan, who wrote the international bestseller No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, said he was mystified by the court ruling on October 14, stressing that the word Allah was merely an Arabic term for God, "any God".

"Allah is constuction of the the word al-Ilah. That's what the word is," he explained.

"Al-Ilah means 'The God'. Allah is not the name of God. Frankly, anyone who thinks that Allah is the name of God, is not just incorrect, but is going against the Quran itself. It is almost a blasphemous thought to think that Allah has a name.

"And this is not an interpretation. It is a historical fact," Reza added.

In its judgment, the Court of Appeal's three-man panel ruled that the word Allah "was not an integral part of the Christian faith and practice and that such usage if allowed, will inevitably cause confusion within the community".

The decision sparked a debate among local clerics and scholars, while several editorials in Muslim countries expressed their surprise over the issue.

Pakistan's Daily Times questioned the ruling, asking why Malaysia would deny people of other faiths to "own God in all His attributes". The United Arab Emirates's The National called the court ruling "wrong", and said the word Allah was never exclusive to Islam but used by both Christians and Jews to refer to God even before the advent of Islam.

Aslan poured scorn on the court verdict, asking, "How can you read that and not laugh?"

Soon after the court ruling last week, he had taken to Twitter and remarked, "How stupid has Malaysia just become? In honor of Malaysia banning the word Allah by non-Muslims I suggest US ban the word 'twerking' by anyone over age of 17," he said, referring to a type of sexually provocative dance.

Much of Aslan's interview yesterday was made available on Podcast.

In it, he slammed those who argue that the faith of Malaysian Muslims can be undermined if Christians use the word Allah.

"This idea that not only should Christians not be able to use this word, but that using the word is somehow a threat to Islam... that Malaysian (Muslims) are so stupid if they hear a Christian use the word Allah, they will accidentally become Christians. I mean, the idiocy of that statement speaks for itself," he said.

Echoing many other Muslim scholars and writers, Aslan said Christians and Jews in the Arabian peninsula since before the time of the Prophet Muhammad had been referring to God as Allah.

"Why? Because they spoke Arabic... that's why. Not because Allah meant a specific God but because that it is nothing more than the Arabic word for God. It is not an opinion. It is a fact," he pointed out.

"Any Imam that tells you God has a name, is blasphemous. It is as simple as that. Allah is not God's name. Muslims do not own the word itself," said the 41-year-old Iranian-American, who is Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Iowa. - October 22, 2013.

The Malaysian Insider

The roots of poverty in Sabah, Sarawak in Malaysia exposed!

 LETTERS/SURAT

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Daniel John Jambun, Chairman of the UK-based Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BOPIM)

Non-compliance raises the question of whether a compliance mechanism must be set up or whether both Sabah and Sarawak should appeal to the international community and the United Nations to facilitate the departure of the two states from the Malaysian Federation. Singapore has been a precedent. 

I will delve immediately into the subject proper of my Paper in conjunction with the forthcoming National Budget 2014 which will be unveiled by the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who is also the Finance Minister. Please bear with me. I will keep my address as brief as possible so that we may all ponder on the essential points that I am trying to make and which must be taken into consideration by the Federal Government.

I have nine major aspects to put before you as Food for Thought in view of the forthcoming National Budget 2014 and you may want to deliberate on them and post your comments below.

As many people know, the World Bank confirmed in Dec 2010 in Kota Kinabalu that Sabah and Sarawak had achieved the dubious distinction of bring the poorest and second poorest states in Malaysia. This is a figure derived at by using the figures of the Economic Planning Units of the Sabah and Sarawak Governments and the Economic Planning Unit in Putrajaya.

Forty per cent of Malaysia’s poor, according to the World Bank, are in Sabah. This means that almost half of the poor people in Malaysia are in Sabah.

The poverty figures should come as no surprise since both Sabah and Sarawak are actually colonies of Malaya. More on that shortly.

Just contrast the economic development of Sabah and Sarawak with the status of neighbouring Brunei which stayed out from the Malaysian Federation at the last minute in 1963 and Singapore which left after two years in 1965.

By the end of 2010, the Singapore economy at US$ 210 billion GDP was bigger than the entire Malaysian economy by US$ 5 billion. This is indeed a shameful state of affairs and one that calls for the leadership in Putrajaya to admit that they are an incompetent and corrupt lot and beyond any redemption.

It would no longer do for Putrajaya to continue in a state of denial. Most of the much smaller Malaysian economy vis-à-vis Singapore is concentrated in Malaya.

Did Sabah and Sarawak federate, willingly or unwillingly, with Malaya and Singapore in 1963 to end up at the bottom of the dung heap along with the marginalized and disenfranchised elements of the Third Force in Malaya?

Patently, it’s clear that something went seriously wrong for Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian Federation somewhere between 1963 and 2013, the 50th year in Malaysia. Most of the damage to the interests of the two Malaysian Borneo states in fact took place in the early years of independence.

The population of Sabah and Sarawak may be much smaller than that of Malaysia but the fact remains that this is compensated by the larger territorial area of Malaysian Borneo comparatively, its huge economic resources including vast acres of fertile land and consequently much bigger economic potential.

This is not however reflected in the Malaysian Parliament where the number of seats allotted to Malaysian Borneo at presents stands at 57 including the one held by the Federal Territory of Labuan. Malaya meanwhile has 165 seats in Parliament i.e. more than two-thirds – 148 seats is two-thirds -- and thereby depriving Sabah and Sarawak of veto power in legislation. It is clear that 19 of the seats held by Malaya in fact belong to Sabah and Sarawak. That would have left Malaya with 146 seats i.e. short of the two-thirds majority and thereby give Sabah, Sarawak veto power in Parliament, as envisaged by the 1963 Malaysia Agreement (MA63), on any amendment to the Federal Constitution.

Veto power is part of the Basic Features Doctrine implied by MA63 in the Federal Constitution.

The rot set in when Singapore’s exit from Malaysia saw Peninsular Malaysia taking half the 15 seats held by the island in Parliament. This altered the previous balance in Parliament between Malaya on the one hand and, on the other hand, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in the collective.

Malayan politicians like to make much of the issue that their much larger population must be reflected in the number of seats held in Parliament. If that’s the case, why is it that Sabah with a much larger population of 3.2 million to Sarawak’s 2.5 million has to make do with 25 seats in Parliament compared with the latter’s 31 seats. If Sarawak’s much larger territory vis-à-vis Sabah’s and the latter’s much larger population vis-à-vis the former’s are both taken into consideration, both states should have the same number of seats in Parliament.

In any case, there’s no dispute between Sabah and Sarawak on the allocation of seats in Parliament. It’s immaterial whether Sabah or Sarawak, in comparison with each other, has a much larger number of parliamentary seats. The pertinent point is that Sabah and Sarawak, collectively, must have at least one seat more than one-third in Parliament.The veto power of Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian Parliament must be restored.

Malayan politicians routinely also claim that rural seats must be given a certain weightage to compensate for their relative under-development vis-à-vis urban seats. This is supposed to account for rural seats having a smaller number of voters compared to those in the urban areas.

If that’s the case, why is this formula not being applied in Sabah and Sarawak, which are largely rural, along the same lines as in Malaya?

The gross under-representation of Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian Parliament, and the deprival of their veto power in the process, has a direct co-relation to the grinding poverty levels in Malaysian Parliament.

It is recommended that no new Parliamentary seats be allocated to Malaya in future increases. If a moratorium is placed on their current 165 seats – to be taken as two-thirds minus one in a new equation or 34 per cent – some semblance of balance can be restored in the Malaysian Parliament.

Sabah and Sarawak’s collective 57 seats, including Labuan, must be increased to 85 seats or 34 per cent for a Parliament of 250 seats. If the present 57 seats are deducted from the new proposed total, this gives us additional and new seats totaling 28 which can be shared equally between Sabah and Sarawak.

This will be reflected in the Malaysian Parliament as follows: Sabah 26 + 14 for 40 seats; Sarawak 31 + 14 for 45 seats; and Malaya still 165 seats. Grand Total: 250 seats in Parliament.

The composition of seats in the Malaysian Parliament must be considered together with the question of revenue sharing between the federal and state governments in general and in particular with the autonomous status of Sabah and Sarawak.

At present, the federal government takes all revenue from Sabah and Sarawak, leaving little for the states and leaving them with very little, if at all, revenue-raising powers. In return, very little of the federal revenue from Sabah and Sarawak comes back to the two states. This is the second major reason for the grinding poverty in Malaysia Borneo apart from unfair representation in the Parliament i.e. the first major reason.

The third major reason for our poverty is the fact that the federal government through Petronas gives only 5 per cent of the oil and gas revenue from the inner waters to Sabah and Sarawak and none from the water outers. Contrast this with the 70 per cent that the provinces are allowed to keep in neighbouring Indonesia. The central government in Jakarta takes only 30 per cent.

The fourth major reason for poverty is the fact that there’s very little oil and gas infrastructure in Sabah and Sarawak. No attempts have been made to diversify the oil and gas sector through downstream activities and as well facilitate backward-and-forward integration.

The fifth major reason is that Borneonisation of the federal service in Sabah and Sarawak have been a non-starter and where implemented, non-Muslim natives and the Chinese and others have been deliberately left out in line with the vile racist master race policy of ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy and dominance).

The sixth major reason for the grinding poverty levels in Sabah and Sarawak has been the refusal of the federal government and their stooge governments in Sabah and Sarawak to respect the Adat.

Among others, this has seen the wholesale confiscation – with the active connivance of the police and Land Office -- of native customary rights (NCR) land and their alienation to the respective state government (by way of extension of forest reserves and the like), to state agencies, Government linked corporations (GLCs), federal agencies and private companies run by cronies of the ruling party. The phenomenon has been well-documented in numerous cases in court and in thousands of complaints lodged with the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) and at the respective Land Offices in Sabah and Sarawak.

This is a deliberate and systematic attempt to reduce the native communities of Sabah and Sarawak to the same pathetic situation of the Orang Asli in Malaya and the Indian underclass in Malaya displaced and dispossessed by the fragmentation of the estates and or their conversion for the purposes of urban development.

Stranded in urban shanty-towns with no personal documents, little marketable skills, often only a rudimentary education in Tamil, poor command of English and Bahasa Malaysia and without any social safety network, suicide is the only option for the Indian underclass given the reality of no upward social mobility. These are the people represented by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, the NGO. These are the people taking to the streets ever so often these days and engaged in running battles with the police and authorities as they walk the path of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism.

Likewise, the future of the natives companies in Sabah and Sarawak will indeed be very bleak without the social safety network afforded by NCR land. Therein lies the seeds of a bloody revolution in Borneo especially when our people start committing suicide, like the Indian underclass in Peninsular Malaysia, to opt out of a hopeless situation.

The native communities in Sabah and Sarawak are being pushed in the same direction as the Indian underclass in Malaya which is a whole lot worse than that of the Orang Asli who still has a little land with them. But for the Orang Asli, how much more time do they still have before they too start committing suicide on the scale of the Indian underclass. Poverty, as Mahatma Gandhi once observed, is the worst form of violence against a people.

The seventh major reason for the grinding poverty in Borneo is the fact that Sabah and Sarawak are being treated as two of the states in Malaysia. This certainly should not be the case if one reads the Malaysia Agreement carefully, the 20/18 Points and other relevant documents including declassified ones available in the United Kingdom.

Sabah and Sarawak were brought together by the British with Singapore and Malaya in 1963 to form the Federation of Malaysia as equal partners. This means that Malaysia is a two-tier federation i.e. a federation of states in Malaya which are part of a greater federation of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore.

Hence, the federal government of Malaysia should be shared equally between Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak i.e. leaving out Singapore which has since quit the federation.

The departure of Singapore from Malaysia begs the question of whether the original federation in 1963 still exists or whether Sabah and Sarawak have been quietly incorporated as two of the states in the 1957 Federation of Malaya (now masquerading as Malaysia). This appears to be the case and must be considered seriously by our legal fraternity, the governments of Sabah, Sarawak, the federal government, the government of the United Kingdom and the United Nations.

Moving forward, it must be clear by now that after nearly 50 years of Malaysia, it cannot continue to be business as usual in Sabah and Sarawak.

Already, the federal government has been in non-compliance with the Malaysia Agreement.

Non-compliance raises the question of whether a compliance mechanism must be set up or whether both Sabah and Sarawak should appeal to the international community and the United Nations to facilitate the departure of the two states from the Malaysian Federation. Singapore has been a precedent.

It’s unlikely that the Umno federal Government, obsessed with ketuanan Melayu, will ever consider any compliance mechanism for the Malaysia Agreement or give justice, belated as it may be, to Sabah and Sarawak. This must be borne in mind by those who are currently flogging the Borneo Agenda with the hope that the federal government will come to its senses. It may be a case of too little, too late.

The departure of the British colonialists in 1963 in fact saw the handover of our two nations to new colonialists in Malaya i.e. those who believe in the vile and racist master race policy of ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy and dominance).

The ketuanan Melayu policy in Sabah and Sarawak is kept going by local proxies of the ruling elite in Putrajaya and their stooges and rogue elements. These lackeys of Putrajaya are traitors who have participated in the colonial divide-and-rule policy of keeping the Chinese and majority non-Muslim natives out of the political mainstream and from the leverages of power.

To add insult to injury, they have willingly participated in the marginalization and disenfranchisement of their fellow countrymen through the placement of illegal immigrants on the local electoral rolls and the grant of MyKads through the backdoor by Putrajaya. What happened to the security promised us by Federation in 1963? This is the eighth major reason for the grinding poverty levels in Sabah and Sarawak.

Even more than the Chinese and non-Muslim natives communities, it’s now the local Muslim native communities that are feeling the brunt of marginalization and disenfranchisement. They see their already small stake under Article 153 of the Federal Constitution being shared with the instant natives created from among the illegal immigrants.

In Sabah, local proxies of Putrajaya have now been dispensed with and Umno itself has struck roots to take half the seats in the state assembly and half the Sabah parliamentary seats. To mask their true intention, they invited MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the PPP from Malaya along for company and recently came up with the so-called 1Malaysia policy. This further ensures the continued enslavement of Sabah.

In Sarawak, Umno is poised to enter the state in the manner that they have done in Sabah. This is to ensure that the majority Dayak community will never be able to rule their own state.

On the final score, there is no Bumiputera in the Constitution or law, only the Orang Asal in Malaya (Orang Asli), Sabah (Dusunic and Murutic Groupings) and Sarawak (Dayak including the Sarawak Malay who are Dayak converts to Islam).

Malay -- Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Aceh, other Muslims -- in Malaya are not Orang Asal.

The ninth major reason, but certainly not the last, for the grinding poverty levels in Sabah and Sarawak is that first Malaysian prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman created the political term Bumiputera to include the Malay in the same category as the Orang Asal by the backdoor and thereby facilitate the ruling elite running up the National Debt Burden to plunder the National Treasury to feather their own nests (to live it up and/or accumulate capital) under the guise of Bumiputeraism and bringing so-called development to the people.

It’s time for the international community and the United Nations to enter the picture and rescue Sabah and Sarawak from the gross violations of human rights taking place and restore our sovereignty and territorial integrity and guarantee our security. There’s no longer any hope for us in Sabah and Sarawak. Something must be done, and done quickly, before the situation further degenerates into an even greater vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance, disease and violence.

Daniel John Jambun is a Political activist and formerly the Political Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Development during the Party Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Government.

Sudah lah ‘Jib! You Haven’t Got it!

by Dr. M.Bakri Musa
Morgan-Hill, California

Sudah lah ‘Jib! You haven’t got what it takes to lead modern Malaysia.

Humiliated by the recent national election and overwhelmed by mounting problems, Najib resorts to the typical tricks of third-rate Third World leaders. He travels abroad frequently to distract himself and Malaysians, and when at home he bribes his way through problems.

Barisan’s loss in the popular votes during the last election was only the latest expression of this lack of confidence in Najib’s leadership. The man has been coasting on the memory of his illustrious father, Tun Razak. For that reason Malaysians have been too generous in giving Najib a pass for so long.

The show cannot go on; the nation can ill afford it. There will be a splendid opportunity for the nation to be rid of his leadership without having to wait till the next national election, and that will be the upcoming parliamentary budget debate. All we need is for a handful of Barisan MPs (12 to be exact) to see through this character so he can be ejected from the Prime Minister’s seat. He does not belong there.

Third Rate Leadership

Back to Najib’s third-rate Third World leadership tricks, his most recent – and most expensive – was the junket that took him through San Francisco on his way to New York. That was literally around the world. Rest assured there will be many more such trips in his ultra-luxurious, custom-fitted full-sized Airbus jet, burning the rakyat’s precious ringgit.

The only saving grace this time was his uncharacteristic prudence financially in landing his jet at Oakland instead of at the exorbitantly expensive SFO. Najib however, more than made that up by staying at the Fairmont Hotel in a suite that would have pleased the likes of King Saud.

In the 1960s, traveling extensively abroad was also the favorite refuge for Indonesia’s Sukarno. It was left to his ministers back home to tell the rakyat to eat rats and thereby simultaneously solve two problems – widespread starvation and rat infestation.

More recently there was the example of Tunisian leader Zine el Abidene, now languishing somewhere in the Saudi desert with only his ill-gotten wealth to sustain him. Meanwhile he faces a death sentence at home and the Interpol has a search warrant for him. As for his wildly extravagant and obscenely ostentatious wife, a former hairdresser, she too has long ago abandoned him. She is also on the Interpol list for money laundering. Take a glimpse of her during her heyday; she has the uncanny resemblance of someone familiar to Malaysians, and not just in facial features.

Sukarnos’s fate in contrast was less severe. At least he died and was buried in his native land. Something for Najib to ponder!

Malaysia is far from being Sukarno’s Indonesia. That however, is setting a very low bar. It tells us how far we have fallen that the two countries are now often mentioned in the same sentence. While Malaysia is also infested with rats, Malaysians are thankfully not starving. Instead what we have are even more rapacious rats continually raiding the people’s Treasury. The biggest of all is Najib.

With his unrestrained access to the Treasury, Najib’s mode of problem solving is to bribe his way. He bribed Malaysians with his multitude of expensive 1-Malaysia giveaways. Just before the election his largesse became more targeted, as with his instant generous grants to Chinese schools and special allocations to East Malaysia. Those bore his trademark of lu tolong gua, gua tolong lu (You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours).

Like bribees everywhere, the Chinese eagerly took the money and ran. Come election time however, they readily saw through what was going on and unhesitatingly dumped Najib. Najib the briber was reduced to lamenting loudly of the Chinese tsunami. Najib mistook the Chinese to be like UMNO Malays, readily bought with only a few million devalued ringgit. In the end Najib was left scratching himself.

East Malaysians were sufficiently grateful for the bribe to vote for Najib, only to be rewarded post-election with a court order banning them from using the word “Allah!” I hope that their Barisan representatives in parliament will now stage their own mini tsunami and flush away Najib.

Now post-election, Malays too are complaining. Again Najib resorted to his favorite trick of bribing, a few billion here and there under the bombastic package of Memperkasakan Ekonomi Bumiputra (MEB – Strengthening Bumiputra Economy). Malays this time have shrewdly anted-up their price, learning from the Chinese. Thus Malays this time are less than enthusiastic with the only few billion thrown their way, even though that is real money.

NEP failed so now MEB

I thought that the whole purpose of the New Economic Policy and all its iterations for the last four decades had been to enhance the economic status of Malays. Obviously had the NEP been successful, we would have little need for this MEB.

Unfortunately for Najib, even the dumbest ass learns eventually. Malays have smartened up and realized that this MEB will just be another massive and lucrative bribery scheme for UMNO cronies. Their beneficiaries may be Malays, the pseudo as well as wannabe, but they do not represent our values.

Indications are, MEB notwithstanding, this time Malays are no longer mudah lupa. Like the Chinese, Malays (at least the lucky ones) are becoming shrewder and will readily take the money and then run. Rest assured that come the next election, there will also be a Malay tsunami.

Or perhaps sooner! The recent UMNO election produced more malcontent losers who will be skipped by the gravy train. They will be grouchy enough to take their frustrations out on Najib.

Commentators of various persuasions have already pronounced Mahathir a loser in this UMNO election. One sure way to make a grouchy loser more so, and thus likely to strike back, would be for the winners to gloat. Abdullah Badawi too gloated after his spectacular 2004 national victory.

Najib the Briber

Back to Najib the briber, he is finally learning a painful lesson. That is, bribees, be they national or party voters, continue to escalate their price tag, especially if they know their targets are soft and lucrative. Najib is one such target.

What is despicable with Najib is that he is using our money to bribe us, after he takes his usual generous cut of course! When you bribe a cop, you are using your own hard-earned cash, not anyone else’s.

It is not just Malaysians that Najib is bribing. He thinks the rest of the world too is easily bribable. Soon after becoming Prime Minister, Najib was all over the global media giving high-profile interviews. Alas those “interviews” were nothing more than “informecials,” paid crass commercials masquerading as legitimate news items.

Far from being embarrassed, Najib still revels in the “glory.” That was his mode of operation. Malaysians were of course embarrassed, as were such media giants as CNN and BBC once they realized they were being duped. The “journalist” involved was duly fired, after earning his millions from Najib. Back in Malaysia, the consultants who thought of the idiotic scheme were rewarded with even more lucrative public relations contracts. For them, it was truly “endless possibilities” as well as endless profits with their desperate-for-praise client, Najib.

On his recent trip to America, Najib was back in his old form. He addressed the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco and Harvard Club of New York, among others. Bribing is illegal in America, except where it is nicely wrapped as “lobbying.”

All this bribe money has to come from somewhere. Even the Saudi Treasury is finite. Watch this upcoming budget; Najib will once again squeeze the rakyat, this time with his Goods and Services Tax together with his scheme for “rationalizing” subsidies. He will again bribe his way by offering in return, a puny reduction in the income tax rates.

The GST hurtful to Low Income and Vulnerable Groups

GST is the most regressive, meaning it imposes a disproportionately heavy burden on those least able to afford it. What Najib gives away in sens (pennies) as with his income tax reduction, he will haul back hundred-fold more through GST.

I hope that our parliamentarians especially in Barisan will finally see through this man’s façade and terminate his tenure once and for all, for the good of Malaysia. Muslims have just celebrated the Eid Qurbani (Celebration of Sacrifice). It is time to qurban Najib for the good of Malaysia. Then the nation can celebrate!

Nothing happens unless Allah wills it, that is, guide Najib to see the light, if not him, then those parliamentarians.

What right have Muslims to copyright the name Allah, asks Pakistan daily

BY ELIZABETH ZACHARIAH

October 18, 2013 The Malaysian Insider

Part of the Muslim NGO groups who were gathered outside the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on Monday when the ruling on Allah was made. The Malaysian Insider pic, October 18, 2013.A newspaper in Muslim-majority Pakistan has joined in the chorus of criticism against Putrajaya over  the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims.

The English-language Daily Times, in its editorial piece in conjunction with the Eid-al-Adha celebrations, was critical of the controversial ruling by the Court of Appeal which reversed a previous High Court ruling, allowing Catholic weekly Herald to use Allah in its Bahasa Malaysia section.

 It lamented that the problem with Muslims is that they looked at their religion like it was an "insecure entity" that needed to be protected with special care and attention lest it gets smeared and nullified.

"The recent example of this attitude is displayed in Malaysia where the government has gone so far as proscribing Christians from using Allah as their God’s name."

"Who has given Muslims the liberty to copyright the name of Allah? It is His name, and He is the God of the universe, as He has said in the scriptures," the editorial stressed.

On Monday, a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, in its judgment, ruled that "the word was not an integral part of the Christian faith and practice and that such usage if allowed, will inevitably cause confusion within the community".

The editorial questioned why Malaysia would deny people of other faiths to "own God in all His attributes", pointing out that every religion believed in the existence of God.

"Is this how piety in Islam is preserved or managed? In fact, being Muslim is no guarantee that we have reached that threshold.

"Is this what the glory of Islam had been all about, something that we want to revert to and long for?" it questioned.

The spirit of tolerance, sacrifice, patience, devotion and simplicity, Daily Times noted, was where Islam's glory lay, adding that these were the attributes that the prophets of the Quran had left for the Muslims to "cherish and follow".

"With retrogressive steps such as prohibiting Christians from using the name of Allah or destroying churches and killing Shias or Ahmedis, we cannot attain that goal," it said.

On Monday, The National - a United Arab Emirates daily - called the Malaysian court ruling "wrong", pointing out that the word Allah was never exclusive to Islam but both Christians and Jews used the word to refer to God even before the coming of Islam.

"The Malaysian decision overlooks not merely the theology, but also the etymology of the word. The word 'Allah' is derived from the Arabic 'al-ilah', the God. It has found its way across the world and entered Malay from Arabic," the editorial added. - October 18, 2013.

Allah decision binding on all Malaysians, says retired AG Abu Talib

BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

October 19, 2013 The Malaysian Insider

All Malaysians are bound by the Court of Appeal ruling on the Allah issue, says former attorney general Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman (pic), who is puzzled that Putrajaya believes the controversial judgment does not affect Christians in Sabah and Sarawak.

The appellate court agreed that the Home Minister could ban the word Allah in the Catholic weekly Herald, but two Cabinet ministers had insisted the decision did not include the Al-Kitab, the Bahasa Malaysia bible widely used in Sabah and Sarawak, and other Christian publications in East Malaysia.

"It has the effect of a binding precedent and all have to respect that decision, whether you agree or disagree," he told The Malaysian Insider, adding it was binding until set aside by the country's highest court, the Federal Court.

Abu Talib, who was the chief legal adviser to the government for 13 years from 1980, said there could be no two sets of law when "we have one nation and one supreme constitution".

"So, there cannot be exemptions given to Sabah and Sarawak on this religious issue based on region or state," he said.

Abu Talib said this in response to Cabinet ministers Tan Sri Joseph Kurup and Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili who had taken the position that Christians in the Borneo states were not affected by the appellate court ruling on Monday and could use the word in their religious practices.

The Muslim Lawyers' Association of Malaysia had also weighed in on the issue, saying the ban only applied to the Bahasa Malaysia section of the Herald.

Abu Talib said the central issue decided was whether people and institutions other than Muslims could use the word.

"The Court of Appeal has made a finding that the name Allah is not an integral part of the faith and practice of Christianity and, by that extension, the word is exclusive to Islam and Muslims," he said.

Abu Talib, who was Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) chair after retiring as AG, said in view of sensitivity of the issue, the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Tun Arifin Zakaria, must give priority to this case which is of public interest.

"If not properly handled, this hot issue will give rise to further controversies as we live in multi-racial and multi-religious society," he said.

He said the matter must be brought to a finality and once the issue had been decided, "all must move forward".

"The position of Islam as the religion of the Federation and freedom of other religions could come under scrutiny if the merit of the appeal was heard in the apex court.

"It boils down to freedom of non-Muslims to practice their faith and any decision under the Federal Constitution binds all, irrespective of state and region," he said.

Abu Talib said there were irresponsible comments and responses following the Court of Appeal ruling with some bordering on contempt of court.

"You can criticize the judgment but there is limit to it. At the end of the day, the independence and integrity of the judiciary must be maintained and observed," he added. – October 19, 2013.

Court of Appeal Allah Decision is Wrong

http://www.malaysiakini.com
 

The Court of Appeal was wrong in its decision banning Christian weekly Herald from using the word ‘Allah' to refer to God in Bahasa Malaysia, said a constitutional law expert.

"By linking religious rights under the chapter on fundamental liberties with Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution which effectively makes Islam the benchmark for everybody, this runs counter to the general meaning of Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution itself," Dr Abdul Aziz Bari told Malaysiakini today.

"The plain meaning of Article 3(1) is simply this: that despite the fact that Islam has been made official religion, non-Muslims may go on practising their religions freely without restriction," said the former Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) law lecturer.

He said that the implication of the decision is that it might make non-Muslims feel "unsafe" and this is contrary to the essence of the Article 3 in the constitution.

Abdul Aziz also noted that the court decision yesterday sounded like a "policy decision" - a decision that is not strictly based on law.

"Like in most countries, the judges - in critical cases - do not feel they have the strength to depart from the line taken by the executive. Not too different from what we have seen in cases involving preventive detention, election petition and Altantuya (Shaariibuu)'s murder," he said.

"Like many, many other decisions which the Minister claimed 'security and public order', the judges just went along with them. In short, the judges were not willing to be proactive here.They obviously still live under the wartime decisions where the government has the absolute power to decide anything under the guise of security and public order," he said.

No Evidence

Abdul Aziz said that with the court decision, the government has interfered with the way Christians practice their religion when there is no evidence that using the world ‘Allah' can jeopardise national security and public order.

"I do not believe the use of ‘Allah' among Christians would create problems for the Muslims. For one thing, the Christians have their own doctrine and they are not out to tell the Muslims about it.

"As for the Muslims, they have their own doctrine that has been developed by their ulama for ages. This is the guarantee that the use of ‘Allah' by Herald - which is not circulated among Muslims anyway - will not affect Muslims," he said.

Abdul Aziz also described the judges' statement that fundamental liberties provision must be read along with Article 3 of the Federal Constitution as "startling".

"The only provisions that is allowed by the Constitution to override provisions for fundamental liberties - or human rights - are Article 149 on power to deal with subversion and Article 150 which deals with emergency," he said.

"The fundamental principle is that the court is there to protect and enhance the provisions for fundamental liberties, not to narrow them down. It is wrong for the Court of Appeal to do that."

Link disturbing

According to Abdul Aziz, the alleged link asserted by the judges between Article 3(1), which declares Islam as "the religion of the federation", and Article 11(4), which allows the legislatures to protect Muslims from being proselytised (converted) is disturbing.

"The most one could say about Article 3(1) is that the provision declares the federation's character and perhaps, ideology.But Article 3(1) is not one to be used to judge or becoming benchmark for the non-Muslims. I think this is the reason why the phrase ‘other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony' is being added towards the end of the provision.

"I find it strange as to why the Court of Appeal did not concentrate on the right to religious freedom and instead chose to highlight the link between Article 3(1) and Article 11(4), which has less relevant here.

"In fact, Article 11(4) could stand on its own without the support from Article 3(1)."

The word “Allah” is never exclusive to Islam

The word “Allah” is never exclusive to Islam – indeed, both Christians and Jews used the word “Allah” to refer to God even before the coming of Islam.

Like the history of most religions, the history of Islam is complex and much debated. But there are a few elements that are not in dispute, chief among them that the God of the Quran is the same as the God of the Bible and of the Torah before it. The mission of Islam, as expressed in the Quran, is not to bring a new faith, but to update the messages of the monotheistic faiths before it.

It is therefore surprising to see, as The National reports today, that a Malaysian court has ruled that a Christian newspaper may not use the word “Allah” to refer to God. The court overturned a previous decision by a lower court, ruling that “Allah” as a term is not exclusive to Islam. This causes a problem for the country’s substantial Christian minority, who have used the word “Allah” to refer to God for decades.

In a fellow Muslim country with substantial Christian and Hindu populations, this feels like the wrong decision. The UAE is rightly proud of its society that allows people from all over the world to practise their faiths openly and without discrimination. Indeed, that inclusiveness is inherent in Islam.

One of the reasons Islam was able to spread so far, so rapidly, was the inclusive nature of the faith: for at least two centuries after the coming of Islam, the Arabs ruled vast regions where the majority were not Muslims. The word “Allah” is never exclusive to Islam – indeed, both Christians and Jews used the word “Allah” to refer to God even before the coming of Islam.

That remains the case today. When Christians across the Middle East pray to God, they use the term “Allah”. Walk into a church in Cairo, Baghdad or Beirut this coming Sunday and you will hear the name of “Allah” invoked. That also applies to the Jews of the Arab world, who for centuries have prayed to “Allah”. The Quran itself is explicit on this subject, declaring, in Surah Al Ankabut, that Muslims should tell People of the Book (Christians and Jews) that “our God and your God is one”.

The Malaysian decision overlooks not merely the theology, but also the etymology of the word. The word “Allah” is derived from the Arabic “al-ilah”, the god. It’s found its way across the world and entered Malay from Arabic.

Arabic as a language is a vehicle for faith, be that Christianity, Judaism or Islam. The God of the three monotheistic religions is the same god. It is unsurprising, therefore, that all three faiths in the Arabic-speaking world (and beyond) refer to God as “Allah”. And if they have the same God, they should have the right to call their deity by the same name. -- The National UAE

Jakim, simply being stunningly stupid

CT Ali | October 15, 2013 

If there is any threat to Allah, it comes from Umno because of the manner it does its politics, which is totally against what Islam professes.

COMMENT

Islam, according to Department of Islamic Development (Jakim), is under threat and Muslims are being denied of their rights as Muslims.

And if Islam and Muslims are under threat, then Allah too is under threat! So says Jakim, but which Allah and which Islam is Jakim talking about?

Is it the Islam that began when Prophet Muhammad started to preach the revelation from Allah in the year 610 AD? The Islam that had it’s tentative beginning from Medina in 622 AD where Muhammad first established his political and religious authority in accordance with Islamic jurisprudence?

The Islam that then spread through Arabia, Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, India, in fact to about every corner of this universe making it the fastest growing religion in the world with over 1.5 billion Muslims?

Is it the Islam that has withstood so many Holy wars that first started in 632 after Muhammad’s death? The many Holy wars that launched Islam into years of continual imperialist, colonists, bloody conquest and subjugation of others through invasion and war which at times even colonised the Christians and Jews?

Is it also the Islam that spread far and wide through the Islamic Golden Age until the Ottoman era ended when the Caliphate was abolished in 1924?

If Jakim is talking about the same Islam, then I dare say that Islam having survived and flourished from that start in Medina in 622 to its current 1.5 billion believers are more than capable of taking care of itself.

Allah, I am sure, is not threatened in any way by anything that Christians, Chinese, non-Umno members or anything else or anybody else can do. He can take care of himself!

Jakim should know that since all the Holy wars stopped, the spread of Islam had continued through Muslims who became economic migrants. Some landed in the then Malay archipelago many years ago – the same Malay archipelago that has now became Malaysia.

And what manner of Muslims do we now have in Malaysia?

We have Muslim sultans, cabinet members, top level Umno leaders doing all things unIslamic. We have many Muslim politicians who live beyond their means and live a life of depravity and excessive consumption.

There are many Muslims girls working as social escorts and waitresses in bars and dangduts bars and Malay girls working as prostitutes in massage parlours and private houses in KL and all over Malaysia.

There are so many Muslims practicing corruption in the police force and other government agencies. All the above and more are being done by Muslims in Malaysia.

What is Jakim doing?

What is Jakim doing about it all? Ignore what is in front of their eyes and instead tells us that there is a threat to Allah, Islam and Muslims, and that threat comes from Christians!

This is Jakim simply being stunningly stupid in the extreme. Most of all that is wrong with Muslims and Islam is within the Muslims themselves – as manifested by the actions of Umno which is made up of entirely Muslims.

If there is any threat to Allah, then it also comes from within that party too because of the manner they do their politics, which is totally against what Islam professes.

But before we fault Jakim, we must consider Jakim’s position too. These men of Allah working in Jakim have nothing to do with Allah or Islam.

It is a man-made statutory body conceived by the Malaysian Council of Rulers to mobilise the development and progress of Muslims in Malaysia, and it now comes directly under the Prime Minister’s Department.

Observe the two fundamental issues – conceived by the Sultans, and now under the Prime Minister’s Department – a recipe for the creation of a self-serving body for the royalty and politicians – one that Jakim has now become.

Jakim is involved in worldly affairs, not affairs of any spiritual nature. Certainly not Islam! So who plays the tune that Jakim dances to?

Surely those to whom Jakim and its people are beholden to for their wages and their Hari Raya bonus! And maybe Jakim has to turn to us to help them in their cause of promoting Islam because their prayers are not being answered by Allah?

It is not Allah that needs defending. You guys in Jakim need Allah to defend you!

The Holy Quran clearly states: “And say, ‘Praise to Allah, who has not taken a son and has had no partner in [His] dominion and has no [need of a] protector out of weakness; and glorify Him with [great] glorification.” [Quran, 17:111]

I rest my case.

Also read:
‘Allah’ under threat, says Jakim
CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.

Pehin Sri Considers His ‘Heritage’

My kids have got it up here – no help from me!

So, Taib Mahmud has yet another business in Sarawak, despite all his protests to the contrary, and it is even named after him.

Pehin Sri Heritage Sdn Bhd has featured on a list of 49 Malaysian companies identified in court by his former daughter in law Shanaz Taib, who is seeking a financial settlement from his son Abu Bekir.

From the value of these recorded companies alone (leaving aside foreign bank accounts and properties amassed by the Taibs) auditors were able to demonstrate that the CM’s son is worth over a billion ringgit in assets, which earn him more than RM2million income per year.

What’s more, the majority of these companies are based in Sarawak, where they benefit from preferential contracts, land titles and monopolies passed their way by Abu Bekir’s Daddy, the Chief Minister.

It highlights how the Chief Minister was simply lying when he claimed on camera that his family ‘do no business inside of Sarawak!

“my family and I are doing well, it is nothing to do with exploitation, taking anything out of this country… my children are well educated, since early days they have gone .. to participate in business outside, I had to do business outside more than 30 years ago – simple reason is I don’t want conflict of interest to haunt me all the time. If I do business inside the country, people will say I used my influence, so of course we did it outside, but outside the country if you have got talent and some money you can really build good business” [Taib 2011]

Pehin Sri Heritage Sd Bhd

So, what is the significance of this particular Taib family business, which is 55% owned by the Chief Minister himself, since there appears little investment or activity attached to the company so far.?

Is PSHSB envisaged as a vehicle to dispense some of the CM’s legendary wealth, in a way that might make people think of him fondly?  If so, nothing yet has been forthcoming.

Doing business? Pehin Sri Heritage is linked to the hundreds of Taib family businesses profiting from his plunder of Sarawak

It is the registered address of this company that is more informative, since it shows how the Chief Minister is personally linked to the top businesses fronted by his various family members in Sarawak.

Pehin Sri Heritage Sdn Bhd shares an address with another family enterprise, which has nabbed a major part of the richest property development project in Sarawak, Premier Cottage Sdn Bhd.

Premier Cottage is the largest shareholder in a so-called Joint Venture to develop 10.5 acres of valuable land on the Kuching Isthmus into a hotel complex.  That Joint Venture is named Isthmus Developments Sdn Bhd, and it too is based at the same address.

Pehin Sri Heritage, Premier Cottage and Isthmus Developments Sdn Bhd are all three registered at Lot 201, Jalan Blacksmith, Kuching.

Urban land grab

 So, what is the story behind Premier Cottage and Isthmus Developments and how do these link with the Taib Mahmud owned company?

Prime site given to Taib’s family companies

This particular lucrative opportunity for the Taib family was launched when the Sarawak State government under Taib Mahmud forcibly acquired the most valuable single urban land bank in the state, by alienating all the land on the Kuching Isthmus.

This is now is planned to be a major development area, backed by infrastructure investment from the government (ie public money).

Local people have launched legal cases, complaining that they were paid miserable compensation for their valuable land, which then (no surprise) found its way from public ownership into the hands of Taib controlled family company, CMS Berhad.

CMS Property Development Sdn Bhd now owns a controlling 51% of the prime land with the SEDC (Sarawak Economic Development Corporation) holding 49% under an over all joint venture called CMS Land Sdn Bhd.

Whether any money was ever paid to the state for this land acquisition by CMSB has remained unreported, but what is evident is that Taib’s family company, thanks to his obvious influence, now has control of the area and also the financial backing of the SEDC to cover the costs of developing it.

Driving decisions from his position of Chief Minister, Planning Minister and Finance Minister, Taib Mahmud could not have arranged matters more favourably for his own family company (although he will doubtless claim that he walked out of the room when all the key decisions were executed).

Cosier and cosier

Hanifah Taib’s husband walked out of the room when fellow CMS directors handed her company a large chunk of land – does that end issues of conflict of interest?

But, one glance at the Premier Cottage concession reveals an even more cosy Taib family arrangement over this site.

Premier Cottage is Directed by the CM’s daughter Hanifah Taib; his sister in law Gertie Chong and his son in law Hisham (Sean) Murray.

The shareholder is a mysterious offshore outfit named Pioneer City Enterprises Limited.  We are entitled to assume that this secretive company is owned by the same three Directors or otherwise Taib himself.

Announcements show that CMS land Sdn Bhd decided to support a RM380 million hotel project by a joint venture called Isthmus Developments Sdn Bhd (IDSB), in which Premier Cottage holds a 54% share.

The decision involved CMS Land handing IDSB 10.5 acres of prime land in return for a mere 3% shareholding in the project. Surely that makes the hands down winners in this deal the close family members who own Premier Cottage and the losers the wider shareholders of CMS and the SEDC?

Wider shareholders of CMS squeezed out by Premier Cottage, owned by 3 Taib members

It is plainly nonsense when CMS attempts to excuse the favouritism shown in handing these 10.5 acres to Hanifah Taib, who is both a major shareholder and wife of the Group Executive Director, Ahmad Alwee Alsree. But in the formal papers they try, by using the same old excuse of saying that the Board Members with a private interest in the deal walked out of the room when the decision was made!

Forget all the minority shareholders in this public company dominated by the Taib family, because other CMS Board Members, like Chief Executive Richard Curtis know who pays their salaries.  Sarawak’s largest company continues to be run as a cash cow for its greediest family.

CMS announcement – daughters Hanifah and Jamilah both benefited from the Board decision to hand the plot to their private company Premier Cottage (Directed by Hanifah and her sister Jamilah’s husband, the Canadian Hisham (Sean) Murray)

Protests of innocence

In the light of this blatant profiteering and influence peddling it is worth re-considering Taib Mahmud’s and his son in law Hisham (Sean)Murray’s loud protestations that they have made no money out of Sarawak.

Posing as Ottawa’s top socialites – Jamilah and Hisham (Sean) Taib Murray

Murray has angrily gone on record denouncing suggestions that he has enriched his family companies through any favoured involvement in Sarawak:

“With regard to your question concerning investmentsin Malaysia, Jamilah Murray has some passive investments on Malaysia, but Sakto and Sakti, and Sean Murray do not.” [legal statement by Sean Murray 2011]

Since the facts speak for themselves the only comment that seems reasonable for such statements is that they are plainly nonsense and lies.

The Godfather

The fact that Taib’s own company Pehin Sri Heritage Sdn Bhd is sitting in the same office as Premier Cottage and Isthmus Developments Sdn Bhd, merely gives a physical confirmation to the corrupt ties of interest between Sarawak’s Chief Minister and his family, who have benefitted from every possible handout from the estate at the bitter expense of many people in Sarawak. Those victims include the original landowners of the Isthmus, who were forced to surrender their properties at fixed prices so that the Taibs could set about making hundreds of millions from state supported development projects.

Readers of this item may also find relevant our previous article, ‘Sean Murray’s Kuching Construction Connection’

Fluff or Real Product?

Is Pure Leverage the suite of online business tools that Google wished they had? GVO the primary company behind Pure Leverage has just started providing the online business world with its new state of the Art Tools Suite. The Team at Pure Leverage are clearly stating “is your business not worth it”? Centered and catered around the Internet marketing niche they have also tied in a ridiculous 100% residual commission’s payout for any paid referral! Meaning anyone that you should introduce into Pure Leverage…they will pay you for it, and pay you BIG money. Developed over the course of 10 years GVO has just launched on March 4th 2013 its NEW Pure Leverage system to the public, offering a massive Tools Suite for a very low price point. Being that these tools are web based also brings this amazing Tools Suite to a Global market place. Sure Pure Leverage runs its powerful Tools Suite with one simple login, but do these Tools actually make the difference in any online business model like they say they do? I venture to say that I have ripped this one wide open. After seeing and listening to people rant and rave over this simple but yet highly profitable system. I had to see it and wanted to be a neutral critic for this so called simple system! 

First, what do they give you in this Suite of Tools and why?

Yes Pure Leverage was designed for online businesses and Internet marketers, so the tools that they have combined and put together in their package reflects on list Building for qualified leads, global communication through email, video email and full web conferencing, plus many other highly effective attributes. Every member of Pure Leverage receives their own private members area where they will find essential tools that you must absolutely have in order to be highly profitable online. You can finally get or improve the results that you are looking for with the NEW Pure Leverage system. All for only $24.95 per month. 

What’s the Pure Leverage Tools Suite and how can I benefit?

Here is just a slice of what you will receive on the inside of Pure Leverage!

1. Lead Capture & Full Auto Responder System: Grow your list up to 10 000 subscribers. Of course you can always upgrade for more subscribers as your business grows, but this system allows you to build a list of qualified leads and the beautiful part is your auto responder campaigns are already set up with a complete email follow up series to help turn your prospects into paid clients. It’s a complete done for you system. Yes the money is in the list but more importantly the money is made from the relationships created from your list!
2. Video Email Service: Seeing is believing, and believing always turns into sales! Video speaks a million words and will build that know, like, and trust with your subscriber base very quickly. Shoot or upload a video on the spot and insert it into many different email templates that cover many different categories. Such as Health and Fitness, Real Estate, Celebrations and deliver your message with a NEW FLAIR!
3. Live Meeting Room: Communications in Team Building is absolute key, and with this stellar product you can build, train and sell from this Powerful Global but private to you Live Meeting Room. This live Meeting Room will hold up to 100 attendees. An upgrade for more seats are available by request as well, as your business grows. Stream and broadcast live using video and audio, use PowerPoint presentation, pre-recorded video and share your desktop from one powerful location!
4. Authority Blog: Brand yourself and generate more leads with the Pure Leverage Authority blog, back link traffic to your offers and cash in. The Authority Blog also comes with content already generated for you! The search engines will pick you up just based on the word “Authority”, ranking you high and directing traffic to you.
5. Elite Coaching Program: Learn from the Pro’s. They will take you through the complete system and show you exactly how to tie these tools into any business model. Or simply show you that you can take Pure Leverage and make it your own primary business model as well and cash in on 100% in commissions month after month.

This package will not only produce results for you but will save you money right from the start! Many people pay for similar services elsewhere and pay through the roof! The guys at Pure Leverage have bundled it all, for one low monthly fee. Now what are some of the field saying about this very easy to use but yet highly profitable system? Well I have also researched this as well and see that top business owners like Daegan Smith, Russell Brunson, Mark Call, Mike Filsaime, Fernando Muniz, and thousands of other top business owners are using this system. Can they all be wrong? I THINK NOT! GVO has really put a turnkey, done for you system together with their new Pure Leverage platform and thousands are cashing in big time! How do these guys do it? They are paying out a whopping 100% in commissions! 

Does Pure Leverage Pay?

Yes Pure Leverage offers an amazing affiliate program and they have kept it very simple. They also give you all the necessary marketing material to really push this new and exciting platform to new heights, and they will reward you for your efforts in a huge way.

1. 100% Commissions on your direct referrals (anyone that you sign into the Pure Leverage system). They will pay you 100% commissions for the first month.
2. 50% Commissions on your direct referrals (anyone that you sign into the Pure Leverage system). They will pay you 50% commissions for every month thereafter.
3. 50% Commission on the income of all your direct referrals - this is huge! If your direct referrals have a combined total of $5000 in sales - you would collect 50% of this total giving you $2500 on top of your regular commissions. The payouts are huge with Pure Leverage!

I have investigated this system and I have spoken with many people about it. Hands down Pure Leverage is showing incredible results. Helping people build their lists of hot qualified leads and turning huge profits. My score on this complete system is a 10 out of 10, well done Team! To get more information on Pure Leverage and to get started immediately just click on the link below! Is your financial gain and Leveraging your freedom not worth it? 

Click here to check it out for yourself!